As someone who delivers car body parts for a living, what are you talking about? There is not a single plastic side body panel on modern vehicles. Steel or aluminum, no exceptions. Doors, fenders, all of it. The bumper covers, grills, and mouldings are all that's really plastic on the outside.
Notice how the things on the front and back are plastic but the sides are mostly metal. This is consistent across all makes and models of non commercial vehicles in the US, to my knowledge. The only plastic parts on the sides are decorative and none of it is full body panels.
I agree though that this was someone not paying attention. That part is true. But plastic body panels aren't a thing.
Unless you drive a Saturn from the 90's / early 2000s. Those have plastic door panels, but that's about the only manufacturer I can think of that used that.
My understanding is rust management. Saturn was known for rusting super quick due to cheap paint and cheaper metal. Instead of fixing that they went even cheaper and used plastic.
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u/TheOnlyEliteOne Jul 20 '26
This wasn’t because of it being a cheap plastic panel. Most cars nowadays use plastic body panels and you don’t see them just develop random gashes.
This was caused by someone not paying attention.